The film sees the re-emergence of the director-hero duo of Anil Sharma and Sunny Deol, raising expectations based on the success of their maiden venture “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha”. This film is however under a different banner, and is markedly different from “G: EPK”. While this film also gives some opportunities for displaying ‘Sunny’s dhai kilo ka haath’, the thrust of the film’s theme is distinctly against the use of force to fight corruption, unlike most other action movies that deal with fighting corruption.

Plot: Talking of films having the theme of a one man crusade against corruption, one is reminded of Ashok Kumar’s “Aashirwad” of the late 60s. The current film, however, does not colour the main protagonist Saranjeet Talwar (Singh Saab) in such extreme hues of strict honesty, although corruption and social injustice had always bothered him. Nor is Saranjeet purely of the non violent type – at least in the beginning of the film, when he is driven to extreme situations, even in the process losing his wife. It is only after he gets arrested for having taken the law in his own hands and getting imprisoned that it dawns on him that fighting corrupt individuals may not be an ultimate solution. Rather, as guided by one of his old friends, currently the jailor of the prison, he realises that the malaise of corruption has to be fought as a system.

In the second part of the film Singh Saab turns the reformer, and decides to take up a crusade to change the system and not take revenge on individuals, and finds an avid supporter for his cause in a crime reporter, Shikha, enacted by Amrita Rao. The avowed intention of the makers of the film is to spread the message that 'Change Is Always Better than Revenge', as translated from the Hindi 'Badla nahin, badlaav'. The film further goes to pontificate through its lead character that society suffers not due to the violence of criminals, but due to the silence of good people.

Singh Saab marshals the strength of common people by uniting them against corruption and injustice, and is seen implementing his laudable plans in city after city ably supported people like Shikha with whom he develops a close rapport. The film is person-centric revolving entirely around the character of Singh Saab, and for this role Sunny Deol has to shed largely his macho image for most parts of the film, and take on the mantle of an idealistic crusader. Whether he would have been the ideal choice for this role or not is to be seen. Probably, it’s the success of the previous association of Sharma and Sunny that may have prompted this choice. Amongst others in the film, Amrita Rao as Shikha the reporter puts in a worthwhile performance, but Urvashi Rautela in her debut does not impress much beyond looking photogenic, and her love scenes look rather too much of a mismatch due to the obvious age difference between her and Sunny Deol. While Prakash Raj fits in ideally as Bhoodev the bad guy, but on the flip side, he seems to be getting similar roles on a repetitive basis. The editing of Ashfaque Makrani could have been crisper and probably a good ten minutes could have been eased out overall. In keeping with the locales if the film, the music track depends more on the Punjabi flavour, and the title track composed by Sonu Nigam would surely linger on.

Verdict: Overall, the film can pass muster as an honest effort on a laudable theme but the treatment leaves much to be desired. A good watch for Sunny Deol fans – they get to see his macho role as well as the subdued idealist in him.